LETTER: I fear for future generations

President Trump says that after the UK leaves the Europen Union (EU) he will make a powerful trade deal with us.

I have been wondering what we will sell to the US.

James Watt invented the condenser boiler, and the working class engineer George Stephenson improved it and used it in the Rocket, the first successful railway engine. Then, thousands of miles of railway lines were laid all over Britain and George’s son Robert was regarded as the world’s greatest railway engineer.

Britain built railways in many countries — Argentina for example — and we received income from them, but no more.

The first wireless signal was sent in Britain but we make few radio sets nowadays. We invented television but all our TV sets are imported.

During the Second World War Britain and Germany invented radar and the jet engine. We still make jet engines but have no monopoly on radar.

I can think of only one British car company, Morgan, which produces about 12 cars a week, the rest of the industry is foreign owned.

A British scientist invented the World Wide Web and gave it to the world, but all the giant firms in this field are American.

Our medical scientists have made great strides but our pharmaceutical industry is small compared with the Americans’.

One of Trump’s cabinet members says the condition for a trade deal will be to accept their genetically modified (GM) foods and chickens reared in cramped battery cages and washed in chlorinated water.

Being 97 years old I have witnessed many of these developments and fear for the future generations.